Marek Makowski

Marek Makowski, from the Systems Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, joined IIASA in August 1987 to work on the development and application of mathematical programming software. He is currently a Guest Research Scholar with the Energy Program.

Dr. Makowski graduated in 1970 with an Engineering and a Master of Science degree in the field of automatic control and computer sciences, received from the Faculty of Electronics of the Warsaw University of Technology; he also studied mathematics at the Warsaw University. Dr. Makowski received his PhD in 1976, from the Polish Academy of Sciences for his thesis on the optimization of environmental models. He was leader of the project on the development of decision support systems for various applications in Poland, and since 1976, he has been actively participating in joint projects with IIASA. From September 1989 to August 1991, he was Acting Project Leader of the Methodology of Decision Analysis (MDA) Project, then Senior Research Scholar with MDA, and from 1996 with the Risk, Modeling and Society Project; from 2006 to 2011 he was the leader of the Integrated Modeling Environment Project. He also led many long-term IIASA collaborative projects with Japan and Poland, as well as diverse work-packages in several EU-founded projects.

Dr. Makowski's research interests focus on model-based support for solving complex problems, which incorporates three interlinked areas. First, integration of interdisciplinary knowledge and its representation by mathematical models. Second, creation of knowledge by comprehensive model analysis, including multicriteria methods. Third, tailoring the modeling process to meet the needs of decision-making processes.

Thus the research interests cover a cluster of areas relevant to the adaptation (whenever possible) or development (when needed) of methodology, algorithms, and software for model-based decision-making support. This includes more specific topics in Operations Research (OR) such as: Multicriteria problem analysis, large scale optimization, optimization of badly conditioned problems, use of database management systems for complex models, decision analysis and support, user interfaces in decision support systems, effective treatment of uncertainty and risk. Specific activities focused on Structured Modeling Technology (SMT) developed to meet IIASA's needs for tailored modeling support for problems characterized by complex relations, huge amounts of data, and the demand for integrated model analysis. SMT supported interdisciplinary teams working at dispersed locations on model specification, collection and verification of data, definition of various model instances, and applying diversified methods of model analysis. Thus SMT provided a consistent management of all persistent elements of the whole modeling process.

The current focus is on further development and applications of modular tools for Multiple-Criteria Analysis (MCA). Two types of MCA methods and tools are developed. First, MCAA for MCA of discrete alternatives. Second, MCMA for MCA of models, especially for large models. Both MCA developed over decades and applied to diverse problems are now extended to effectively support analysis of large models that require substantial computational time. The recent applications focus on integrated analysis of energy policies.